I cannot read japanese...can you?

[EricTheEevee]

Okay so, since Platinum is coming out next week in Japanese, I figured I'd ask this.

I know that a lot of people in America (and other places) are going to import platinum from Japan so they can play it as soon as possible. Well, I don't understand how someone could do this unless they can speak Japanese.
So, if you are going to import it, can you speak japanese? Or is it really easy to guess what they are saying? Or is there probably going to be tranlations around the web?

 

[Mr Briney]

I imported pearl and diamond when they came out in japan and no i cant read japanese but the story line on all the games are similar and just tried different ways of getting around. I did check a walkthrough a few times but didnt need to that much. So yeah i am going to import platinum and dont expect it to be much of a problem to get through it

 

[kabigon]

It doesnt take a genius to beat a pokemon game without being able to read the language....its a relatively simple game.

 

[Taemin]

Alot of fansits do have guides up for the Japanese versions, yes, but many fans just trudge through it whether they can read Japanese, or not. I haven't tried that before myself, but my guess is that if you play through in Japanese, then it's just training and going through the battles, while ignoring the plotline.

It might be a little confusing, but it is very possible, as a lot of peope do it, and beat it just as fast as they would if it were in english.

 

[kohei]

Can read Japanese, no need to import etc.
Still need to pre-order it to get a Giratina figurine, if it's not too late.

Still, I guess it'll be nice to understand Japanese, so you can enjoy how the official English game handles translations.

 

[EdenDecay]

I speak Mandarin which is close to Japanese, so I can read some here and there.

But I've never gotten an imported game.

 

[wakachamo]

I speak Mandarin which is close to Japanese, so I can read some here and there.

But I've never gotten an imported game.

Wow, Mandarin is a completely different language. Sorry, but no. Besides, the Pokémon games only use the basic Hiragana and Katakana alphabets, and don't use the Kanji symbols, which are the only thing which are only remotely similar to the writing of Chinese. So, regardless of your knowledge of Mandarin, you won't be able to understand.

 

[EdenDecay]

That's not true at all. :/

The Japanese language was taken from parts of Chinese. What history books have you read?

Japanese (日本語 / にほんご Nihongo (help·info)?) is a language spoken by over 130 million[3] people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages. There may exist relationships with other languages, but they have still remained undemonstrated. It is an agglutinative language and is distinguished by a complex system of honorifics reflecting the hierarchical nature of Japanese society, with verb forms and particular vocabulary to indicate the relative status of speaker, listener and the third person mentioned in conversation whether he is there or not. The sound inventory of Japanese is relatively small, and it has a lexically distinct pitch-accent system. It is a mora-timed language.
The Japanese language is written with a combination of three different types of scripts: modified Chinese characters called kanji (漢字 / かんじ), and two syllabic scripts made up of modified Chinese characters, hiragana (平仮名 / ひらがな) and katakana (片仮名 / カタカナ). The Latin alphabet, rōmaji (ローマ字), is also often used in modern Japanese, especially for company names and logos, advertising, and when entering Japanese text into a computer. Western style Arabic numerals are generally used for numbers, but traditional Sino-Japanese numerals are also commonplace.
Japanese vocabulary has been heavily influenced by loanwords from other languages. A vast number of words were borrowed from Chinese, or created from Chinese models, over a period of at least 1,500 years. Since the late 19th century, Japanese has borrowed a considerable number of words from Indo-European languages, primarily English. Because of the special trade relationship between Japan and first Portugal in the 16th century, and then mainly the Netherlands in the 17th century, Portuguese, German and Dutch have also been influential."

-Wikipedia

 

[kohei]

EdenDecay kinda missed wakachamo's point.

Pokemon never uses Kanji (some exceptions, such as 円), only Hiragana and Katakana.
So knowing Mandarin won't be helpful, since the latter two styles do not exist in Mandarin.

 

[EdenDecay]

Ohhh, I see. XD

I feel dumb now. I thought he meant just in general that Mandarin and Japanese weren't similar.
I've never played an imported Japanese Pokemon game or any imported games, so I wouldn't know.

 

[Hiidoran]

Ohhh, I see. XD

I feel dumb now. I thought he meant just in general that Mandarin and Japanese weren't similar.
I've never played an imported Japanese Pokemon game or any imported games, so I wouldn't know.

Well, you may have some kind of an advantage in learning the Japanese language, considering you know the radicals in which Hiragana and Katakana were formed. I suppose that could be a plus if you look at it that way.

Oh, I can read Hiragana and Katakana just fine, however; I do not know the Japanese words in which they spell out. xD
I'm not quite sure why, but in my Japanese learning experience I started with the two Syllabaries and never quite began learning the actual verbal language itself.

I don't find it difficult at all to navigate through a Pokémon game totally oblivious to the plot. To be honest, one can easily understand the basics of what is going on just by the actions performed in game.
(The only time I remember getting stuck in my Japanese Pearl version was at the point in Jublife City where you have to get the tickets from the three clowns.)

From that experience, I learned to just talk to every person in each town and on each route; that way I wouldn't miss anything!

 

[LethalTexture]

I think this would belong better in Japanese Entertainment.

*moves*

 

[devilicious]

I can read and understand a pretty good amount of it, and I have both hiragana and katakana mastered, so I guess I'll do fine. Specially because the Pokémon games use very simple vocabulary.

If anything, I'm going to play Platinum with a dictionary by my side.

 

[the bitter end.]

Yeah, I have about the vocabulary of a five year old though, however it should be enough to get through platinum.

 

[Counterfeit]

I see a lot of people import not understanding the language, which means they don't know the plotline.
Dosen't that bug you that you don't know what they've just said?

 

[digi-kun]

As far as hiragana and katakana go, i'm pretty fine, kanji, i have a bit of chinese(mandarin, whatever) behind to back it a bit, though it doesn't help that much

 

[Taemin]

I see a lot of people import not understanding the language, which means they don't know the plotline.
Dosen't that bug you that you don't know what they've just said?

It would bug me, I can sure tell ya that.

xD;

Thats part of the reason why I don't play the imports, I just wait.

But alot people really care less about the plot line, so they manage.

 

[Parabolic]

EdenDecay kinda missed wakachamo's point.

Pokemon never uses Kanji (some exceptions, such as 円), only Hiragana and Katakana.
So knowing Mandarin won't be helpful, since the latter two styles do not exist in Mandarin.

Hiragana and Katakana for the win. I hate Kanji with a freaking passion... especially since I am now learning Mandarin and they use almost the same characters for different things. But that's beside the point.

Not knowing the plot to a game would grind my gears. The whole point of an RPG besides training is the story line. So if you can't read Nihongo then either work for a few years to learn it or wait for state-side releases.

 

[Neko]

I don't know Japanese, but it doesn't matter when it comes to Platinum; I usually just wait for the games to come our in America so I can read and understand what the peeps in the game are saying. x3 Much easier.


-Neko

 

[Kryssi]

I was thinking of maybe importing the game, but being put off a little by the language barrier, I want to be able to know what I am reading.
I've always wanted to learn Japanese, and actually, there's a game being released on the DS in a couple of months that teaches you japanese, so i'll be giving that a whirl.